exhibitor user guide · pto today virtual expo –exhibitor user guide designing your virtual booth...

Exhibitor User Guide

PTO Today Virtual Expo – Exhibitor User Guide

What To Expect

At our live virtual events, your company will have a

dedicated “virtual booth” page on the Bizzabo

platform. You’ll be able to create engaging moments in

real-time for attendees in your booth with face-to-face

conversations, text chats, live presentations, video and

downloadable materials, polls, an interactive

whiteboard, and more.

The screen shot to the right shows a sample “virtual

booth” page and what it looks like from the attendee

perspective when your booth is live and the interactive

portal is active.

We’ve also created a video that shows what the

attendee experience looks like from start to finish that

you can view here - https://youtu.be/VQTZL0FOlRc

Interactive Portal

Handouts/Videos

https://youtu.be/VQTZL0FOlRc


Designing Your Virtual Booth Experience

How you run your virtual booth the day of the expo really depends on how many staff members you plan to have in the booth at one time.

While the virtual booth has many options on how to interact with attendees, which we will go into detail on later in this guide, you need to

decide what works best for your product/service and your staff. Below are some tips and best practices to help you get started.

Staffing Scenarios

• 1 person only – This person will be available in the booth all day as the presenter.

• 2 people - One person is available in the booth; second person uses breakout room or manages questions in the chat feature.

• 3-5 people - One person is available in the booth: others can open up breakout rooms and/or manage the chat. Or you can schedule

your staff to cycle in throughout the day.


Similar to an in-person event, attendees will visit the exhibitor pages and stop by to chat. You want to make the most of all the opportunities

to educate attendees on what you have to offer. The company description you provide to us will be featured at the top of your booth page

for attendees to see, so we recommend making it easy-to-read and focus on your main selling points. You can also provide us with

handouts or video that attendees can access on their own at the bottom of your booth page when they visit – see page 2 for placement.

Below we’ve outlined several ways to interact and engage with attendees.

Option 1 – Traditional: One person opens up the booth to visitors – similar to a Microsoft chat or Zoom call. Visitors and exhibitor can see

each other and talk or chat. (This is the closest option to an in-person event, where people come by throughout the day and you just talk

face-to-face)

Option 2 - Presentation: You can offer a PowerPoint presentation or run a video. If you decide to go this route, you should schedule it a

few times during the day. Let us know the times and titles so that we can post it at the top of your page along with your company

description. This way attendees can see this before the day of the show and schedule their time accordingly and you can still allow for time

during the day for those important one-on-one conversations.

Option 3 – Robust: This option works best if you have more than one staff member in the booth at a time. One person can run a

presentation in the main virtual booth area and others can use breakout session or chat feature to manage multiple visitors.


How To Access The Interactive Portal

Prior to the expo, each representative

that will be in your booth on the day of

the show, will receive an email invite that

will be your access to enter the backend

of your interactive virtual booth portal. It'll

look something like the example to the

right. Don't lose this email, as you'll

need it again when it's time for the

event.

Click the "Join Portal" link and you'll be

taken to a login screen on the Bizzabo

platform asking for your email and

password. Enter in the email address

you received the invite at and choose a

password between 6 and 25 characters.

Email Invite

Bizzabo Platform Login


How To Access The Interactive Portal

Once you setup your password and

login, you will be brought to the page

shown at the right. You will then click on

the “Enter Virtual Room” button in the

top right-hand corner shown circled in

yellow here. This will now bring you into

the interactive portal.


How To Use The Interactive Portal

When you click on the “Enter Virtual

Room” button you will enter the

interactive portal. The screen shot to the

right shows what the portal looks like

upon entry.

You can enter this portal at any time

once you have access and familiarize

yourself with how everything works.


By default, your portal is set to Virtual Room mode. Below is an explanation of the features in this mode.

Session Room Mode: Virtual Room

The virtual session room mode provides a “hands-free” approach to managing your attendees in the live session:

• Limited to 50 participants with up to 20 cameras open (controlled by the participants)

• Participants are prompted to turn on their devices when joining the live virtual room. If they have already used the virtual solution, then their webcam

and microphone devices are automatically initiated.

• When your participants’ devices are activated, they are automatically added to the stage - this means they can see one another.


Interactive Portal Features

Uploading Files

You can pre-load the interactive portal with the

presentations, slides, videos, etc. that you want

to show during your live interaction with

attendees on the day of the expo. You can do

that by clicking on “Files” in the top nav bar. A

pop-up window will open, and you can start

uploading your files. You can then add files to

your Playlist so they will show up in the right

column and you can easily access them during

your presentation.

We recommend that you add any files you

want to show on the day of the expo ahead

of time to allow for a more seamless event

and to ensure they display properly.



Chat

There are three chat components enabled within

your virtual session that allow you to interact with

attendees via messages. The chat threads can be

seen in the right column of the portal.

1. Room Chat component - visible for all attendees

2. Q&A component - attendees-to-speakers

communication

3. Moderators Chat component - chats between

attendees and speaker/moderators. Attendees

cannot see other participants questions - just their

own.



Within the interactive portal, you have

several options for how to interact with

attendees. At its most basic form, you

can just turn on your camera and

microphone and speak to attendees.

The screen shot to the right shows this

in action.

Whenever you are presenting with your

camera on, you want to be aware of your

background and lighting. We’ve included

tips and best practices in a separate

slide.


Interactive Portal Features:

How to turn on your camera and

microphone

1. Click on the camera and microphone

icons in the nav bar shown in screen

shot. You’ll then be prompted in a

pop-up box to activate them both.

2. When you are ready to be seen, click

the “Live” button in the right-hand

column under your name shown

circled in the screen shot.

Step 1

Step 2


Interactive Portal Features:

How to turn on your camera and

microphone

Once your camera is live, if you want

your video to be larger, just click on your

image – then click the person icon

circled in the screen shot to the right.


How To Use The Interactive Portal - Background, Lighting, and Audio Tips

Background:

While there are many things that can easily distract your virtual attendees, the speaker’s background doesn’t have to be one of them. For those that are planning on using

their cameras, it is important to pick an area with minimal distractions in the background, ensuring that the focus is on the speaker and content.

Lighting:

One easy, yet effective way to maximize the visual quality is by improving the lighting in your videos. A well-lit environment will highlight facial expressions and help the

audience focus on your speakers.

• Natural Daylight - sit facing a window. If the sun is too bright, pull down the window shade to diffuse it.

• Artificial Light - a softened, diffused lamp (lampshades do the trick) placed at a 45° angle in front of you will eliminate most shadows on your face

• For lamps with exposed bulbs, like a desktop lamp - sit facing a wall (preferably white) and place the lamp directed at the wall in front of you tilted up at a 45°

angle. A soft light will bounce back at you

• If there is no lamp available - reposition your video and face the strongest light in the room

• Finishing Touches - bring your laptop to eye level or slightly higher. A simple way to do that is to place your computer or camera on a stack of books

Audio:

If possible, have your speakers use a microphone. Microphones have the ability to pick up the dimensions in your tone of voice and can help eliminate surrounding noises,

making the audio more powerful and captivating for your audience. Even the microphone on your headphones can give a big boost to audio quality.


Interactive Portal Advanced Features:

How to access the various tools

Within the interactive portal, you have

several options for how to interact with

attendees. Click on “Apps” in the top nav

to access all the tools.


Interactive Portal Advanced Features: Whiteboard Tool

Cursor

Use the cursor tool to select drawn objects then move them, resize them, or edit

them.

Laser Arrow

Use the laser arrow to enable your participants to track your cursor as it moves

along the whiteboard.

Each participant has their own laser pointer identified by their first name to help

you identify who is using the laser pointer.

To Free Draw

Select the Pencil icon. Click & drag your cursor to draw.

To Highlight

Select the Highlighter icon. Click & drag your cursor to highlight text on the

whiteboard or slide.

To Type

Select the Text icon. Click the whiteboard where you want your text box to be.

Enter in your text. Click outside of the text box to post it.

To Draw Shapes

Select the Square icon. Click shape & drag your cursor to draw the shape.

Undo or Redo

Click the Undo or Redo arrows to undo or redo previous marks.

To Clear The Board

Click the 3-dot menu in the top right of the whiteboard. Select Clear This Board.

Click Ok to in the Confirm Delete pop-up.

Create additional whiteboard pages

Your whiteboard drawings are automatically saved and remain in the session, unless you manually delete

them. Each whiteboard can support up to 50 pages. You can add additional boards by simply clicking +Add

Board in the thumbnail tray to add a new board to the whiteboard

Dismiss whiteboard

To dismiss the whiteboard, click the x in the top right of the stage or select another app/file to display.

Dismissing the whiteboard does not clear it. The whiteboard marks are saved in the room until erased.


Interactive Portal Advanced Features

Desktop Share

You can screen share your whole desktop or

a specific window to your audience.



Quizzes and Polls

At the moment, you can only create a

“Quiz” in the interactive portal with

“correct answers.” To get around this,

make all the answers ‘correct’, that way

it works like a poll.



Breakout Rooms

*Only use this feature if you have more than

one rep in your booth. One rep should always

stay in the main virtual booth room to welcome

and engage with attendees as they come in.

If multiple attendees come to your booth, an

additional rep can take the attendee(s) to a

Breakout Room for a separate conversation.

How to put attendees into Breakout Rooms:

Click on the Apps button on the top menu ->

select Breakout Rooms.



Breakout Rooms – How to breakout attendees into

separate rooms

1. All the attendees in your booth will be listed to the left

under the “Auto-Assign” header. Drag the attendee(s) to

the desired breakout room.

2. You will now notice a yellow bar appears at the top of

your booth saying Audience Currently in Breakout

Rooms. Click the Manage Breakout button and click

the breakout room you’d like to join.

When your breakout session is over, click the Return to

Breakout Manager link in the top left in the yellow bar and

then drag the person back to the left under “Auto-

Assign” so they can re-join the main virtual expo booth.


Recommended System Requirements for Virtual Session

Visit this Quick Tech Check page to make sure you have the best experience in your session.

https://smart.newrow.com/room/testPage/

https://smart.newrow.com/room/testPage/


Supported Operating System & Devices

Windows

• Windows 10, Windows 8 or 8.1, Windows 7

• Chrome, Firefox, and Edge

• Computer or laptop with Intel Pentium 4 processor or later that is SSE2

capable and 512 MB of RAM, or a Surface PRO 2 or Surface PRO 3

Mac

• Mac OS X, macOS 10.9 or later

• Chrome and Firefox

• Intel processor 64-bit and 512 MB of RAM

Linux

• Ubuntu 12.04, Mint 17.1, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.4, Oracle

Linux 6.4, CentOS 6.4, Fedora 21, OpenSUSE 13.2, ArchLinux (64-bit only)

• Chrome, Firefox

• Intel Pentium 4 processor

Chrome OS (Chromebooks)

• Chrome

• 2GB Ram

iOS (iPhones & iPads)

• iPhones

- iPhone 5S or later

- Safari

- iOS 11 or later

• iPads

- iPad Mini 3, iPad Air, iPad Pro, iPad (2017) or later

- Safari

- iOS 11 or later

Android (phones & tablets)

• Android 4.0 or later

• Chrome


Additional Questions & Resources

You can access the interactive portal as many times as you like prior to the expo, so we recommend that you familiarize yourself

with all of the features you intend to use. If you have additional questions, please email [email protected].

Attendee Experience Video - https://youtu.be/VQTZL0FOlRc

Frequently Asked Questions - https://schoolfamilymedia.com/pto-today-virtual-expo-frequently-asked-questions/

You can visit the attendee webpages and see the exhibitor listing pages below for each show:

Midwest Virtual Expo Website – https://events.bizzabo.com/ptotoday-midwest-virtual-expo

Mid-Atlantic Virtual Expo Website – https://events.bizzabo.com/ptotoday-midatlantic-virtual-expo

Southwest Virtual Expo Website – https://events.bizzabo.com/ptotoday-southwest-virtual-expo

Northeast Virtual Expo Website - https://events.bizzabo.com/ptotoday-northeast-virtual-expo

mailto:[email protected]

https://youtu.be/VQTZL0FOlRc

https://schoolfamilymedia.com/pto-today-virtual-expo-frequently-asked-questions/

https://events.bizzabo.com/ptotoday-midwest-virtual-expo

https://events.bizzabo.com/ptotoday-midatlantic-virtual-expo

https://events.bizzabo.com/ptotoday-southwest-virtual-expo

https://events.bizzabo.com/ptotoday-northeast-virtual-expo

exhibitor user guide · pto today virtual expo –exhibitor user guide designing your virtual booth...

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